The latest Boeing and aerospace news, including updates about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, 747-8 and 737, Airbus A380 and A350, the anticipated Boeing 797 and Boeing jobs and layoffs

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UPDATED: Magazine — no 737 replacement anytime soon

Guy Norris of Aviation Week magazine has a report out this week that Boeing and Airbus are further pushing back their respective time line for a single-aisle replacement plane.

Boeing is abandoning its long-running effort to devise a successor to the 737, driven back to the drawing board by the lack of existing technology that can deliver the huge leap in performance airlines want for a next-generation single-aisle aircraft.

The decision to disband the 737RS (replacement study) design project, because it fell short of critical performance targets, has implications beyond Boeing. It will likely influence how Airbus moves forward on its A320 replacement effort, the A30X. For airlines, it means an even longer wait until a 737 or A320 follow-on hits the market.

For Boeing, the focus now switches to more fundamental research into aerodynamics, composites and other advanced alloys and hybrid materials, systems and propulsion in the hope that concepts will emerge to meet the challenge.

The manufacturer openly admits the change of strategy, saying, “We know customers are demanding really high targets for this aircraft, and we know that with the state of technology, we’re not going to get there anytime soon.” As a result, Boeing adds, “We’re focusing on technology efforts and reducing the aircraft design effort while the technology matures.”

The transformation of the 737RS project into a more sweeping technology study effort is sparking industry speculation that this will inevitably push any prospective development of a 737 successor toward 2017-19. Boeing declines to be more specific on the impact of the decision or the potential for further slippage. It simply says, “We expect the rate of this technology development to be available in the latter part of next decade, and we’ve said this will be no earlier than 2015.”

I talked with Guy Monday at Boeing’s media tour for the 787. This was the report I filed on what we got to see and hear about the progress on getting the 787 production system working as it was designed. We also have a 787 photo gallery.

UPDATED: I spoke with Boeing on Wednesday and the company insisted it is not “abandoning” its 737 replacement study. A spokeswoman said Boeing is simply “refocusing” its efforts on the break through technologies that will be required in that next new plane. “We are still very much in the business of looking at a replacement plane,” she said.

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